Issue Summary
Evidence of inequitable use of chemotherapy in New Zealand colorectal cancer patients
New Zealand has one of the highest incidence rates of colorectal cancer in the world, and has higher colorectal cause-specific mortality than Australia.
Pneumocystis pneumonia in HIV-negative adults: missed opportunities for prevention
Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), caused by the opportunistic fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii, is almost exclusively a disease of the immunocompromised.
Evaluating the implementation and outcomes of a sepsis pathway in the emergency department
Although sepsis is well recognised as a medical emergency, it can be difficult to identify given its various clinical presentations.
Quality measures in cervical lymphadenectomy for cutaneous malignancy by head and neck trained general surgeons
Therapeutic lymph node dissection (TLND) remains the gold standard for the surgical management of clinically evident regional cervical disease in patients with cutaneous malignancy.
Smoke-free cars legislation: it works but New Zealand should still rigorously evaluate its upcoming law
A systematic review has reported that smoking in cars leads to extremely high exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), “even in the presence of air-conditioning or increased airflow from open windows”.
Saying it don’t make it so: a response to Winnington and MacLeod
In their recent article ‘Social consequences of assisted dying: a case study’, Rhona Winnington and Roderick MacLeod raise concerns about the societal implications of legalising assisted dying (AD) in New Zealand.
Reflections on conducting research with healthcare users in a pandemic lockdown | OPEN ACCESS
For most of us, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown is and was an unforeseen and unprecedented experience. It changed the way we worked, shopped and engaged with each other. It also changed the way we did research.
Spontaneous atraumatic lingual haematoma presenting with threatened airway obstruction
Spontaneous bleeding in the head and neck region in the absence of trauma, use of anticoagulant medication or an intrinsic bleeding disorder is a rare medical entity. There is little published on this subject to date.
Necrotising fasciitis of the upper limb: an Auckland experience
Necrotising fasciitis (NF) is a severe and rapidly fulminating septic process, primarily involving subcutaneous and fascial tissues. It has the potential to spread precipitously to involve an entire limb resulting in significant soft tissue defects and in some cases amputation and death.
Leukaemia-in-ano
Fistula-in-ano is a very common surgical condition, caused by anal cryptoglandular inflammation.
Time for a change
A severely injured person in New Zealand is entitled to lump sum compensation under the Accident Compensation Act 2001.
On the epistemology of case studies of social phenomena in healthcare
Winnington and MacLeod recently reported in NZMJ a case study related to voluntary assisted dying (VAD). In this study, the authors used a semi-structured interview of a single participant’s experience of VAD in a family member, in a foreign country.
Ischaemic cardiomyopathy: management strategies and patient outcomes
Ischaemic heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Survival from coronary artery disease (CAD) has improved owing to advancements in revascularisation strategies leading to an increased incidence of people living with chronic heart failure.
Intensive care in New Zealand: time for a national network | OPEN ACCESS
The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic seems fortunately to have left New Zealand relatively unscathed in comparison to many countries throughout the world. There have been to date a total of 1,556 cases (1,206 confirmed and 350 probable) with 22 deaths.
Get up, get dressed, get moving! Preventing functional decline is everyone’s business | OPEN ACCESS
Getting up, dressed and moving is important for older inpatients, who are known to rapidly succumb to skeletal muscle loss and mobility/functional decline while in hospital.
Pandemic control: getting to the heart of unintended consequences | OPEN ACCESS
In December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia of unknown cause was reported in Wuhan, China. This was later identified to be caused by a novel coronavirus from the same family of viruses that caused previous outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Common Preventable Defects of Childhoods
To medical men in private practice the poor physical condition of present-day children is not likely to be so obvious as to one engaged in examining large numbers in the schools.
